Beggar 2.0 by Saso Sedlacek – Exhibition

This year as curators the KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis presenting Beggar 2.0 – a robot for the materially deprived by Slovene artist Saso Sedlacek.
The Beggar robot is above all the messenger of the news that too much of the world is getting poorer not richer and that’s unfortunately bad news for us all.
Beggar 2.0 is a robot for the materially deprived which is made of old electronics and computer spare parts.
The original 1.0 was tested in Slovenian shopping malls where it is forbidden to beg, but no such rule was made for robots.
The experiment showed that richer part of society shows more sympathy towards the marginalized groups if they communicate from a safe distance and via technological interface.
The new upgrade version of Beggar robot made at IAMAS institute in Japan was tested in the beginning of July on Tokyo streets where begging isn’t really a frequent phenomena and where interface communication is ubiquitous.
The new version runs on Linux (written by Yu Fukui) and will be soon available on this web site for anyone to download the program and copy the robot. BAGGAR 2.0 version was made at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Science)